The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-12-20

/ certainly does not want money; he is not poor
! but be is sick" Give him one of
! those twenty-five hundred cheerful looks that
1 Won have garnered up for the whole year.
1 Look JOY and hopefulness into Ills soul. 1t viii
| thrill him through, and there Will be a reaction
upon your own soul. Going q little farther on,
you VIII come to the store of friend who is
embarrassed in business matters. You will 20
in and say, "What fine store you have! [
think business will brighten up, and you will
have more custom after while. think there
is coming great prosperity to all the
country. Good morning" You pass out.
You have helped that young man. and you have
helped yourself. And that night you go home
you sit by the fire, you talk little, you sing a
little, you laugh little; you say, 81 really
don't know what is the matter with me. |
never felt so splendidly in my life." will
tell you what is the matter with you. You
spent only two cents out of the ten dollars
you have contributed one out of twenty-five
hundred cheerful looks; you have given ten,
o +ssn or neb fwSny words Sf the f aTe
going to speak during the year; you have,
with your own hands, helped the boy with
the wheelbarrow, and you feel in body mind
and soul the thrill OF that recreation. Which
do you think was the happier-Colonel Card
liner, who sat with his elbow ON table spread
with all extravagant yiands, looking off at
dog on the rug. saying, Chow would like to
change places with him; l be the dog and he
be Colonel Gardiner" or choose two Moravan
retto for the sake of attending the sick, and
they were told, eff you go in there, you will
never come out. We never allow any one to
come out, for he would bring the contagon."
Then they made their wills and went
in, first to help the sick, and then
to die. Which was the happier
Colonel Gardiner, or the Moravian missiona-
ries dying for others? Was it all sacrifice
when the missionaries wanted to bring the
gospel to the negroes at the Barbados, and,
being denied the privilege, sold themselves
into slavery, standing side by side, and lying
side by side down in the very ditch of suffer-
men up to life and God and heaven? Oh,
there is a thrill in the joy of doing good 1t
is the most magnificent recreation to which
man ever puts his hand or his head or his
heart.
But, before closing, want to impress upon
you that mere secular entertainments are
not'a fit foundation for your soul to build on.
was reading of a woman who had gone all
the rounds OF sinful amusement. and she came
to die: She said, II will die tonight at six
O'clock" "Oh," they said, al guess not YOU
don't seem to be sick.' ''I shall die at six
o'clock, and my soul will be lost. 1 know it
will be lost have sinned away my day of
grace" The noon came. They desired to
seek religious counsel.
"Oh,' she said, sit is of no use. My day is
gone. I have been allithe rounds of worldly
pleasures and it is to late. I shall die tonight
at six o'clock" The day wore away and it
came TO TOUR O'CLOCK, and to five O'Clock, and
she cried out at five o'clock, destroyed spir-
its, ye shall not have me yet; it is not six, it
is not ski" The moments went by, and the
shadow began to gather, and the clock struck
six; and while it was striking her soul went1
What hour God will call for us 1 do not know
whether six tonight, or three o'clock,
this afternoon, lor at one o'clock, or at
this moment. Sitting where you are, falling
forward, or standing where you are, dropping
down, where would you 90 to?
But our hour for adjourning is already come
and the last hour of our life will soon be here,
and from that hour we will review this days
proceedings. 1t will be a solemn hour. If
from our death-pillow we have to look back
and see life spent in sinful amusement there
will be dart that will strike through our soul
sharper than the dagger with which virginius
slew his child. The memory of the past will
make US quake like Macbeth. The iniquities
and rioting through which we have passed will
come upon us, weird and skeleton as Meg Mer-
rifles. Death, the old Shylock, will demand,
and take, the remaining pound of flesh and
the remaining drop of blood; and upon our
last opportunity for repentance, and our last
chance for heaven, the curtain will forever
drop.